McCarthy, Eoghann

Abstract [en]

What if the supply matched demand? What if you didn’t have to wait for a bank to give you money, or for a developer to develop the apartment block? What if you could choose your apartment size according to your wants, and your budget, and not according to the availability? What if the architect’s clients were the home-owners, not the developer? What if your home adapted to you rather than you adapting to your home? What if the resident was the developer, the client, the designer, the urban planner, the landlord, the tenant, the law-maker?

What if architects could ‘teach a man how to fish’ rather than giving him a fish... The man could eat for a lifetime.

I propose that the architect’s role could be to provide residents with the tools needed to tackle their personal housing crisis. Only empowering by the mass can an architect make a notable difference.

My architectural proposal is to imagine how a citizen-led housing concept might manifest itself depending on the local relationship with the housing crisis. Based in three European cities, I explore the variety of responses to how an architect could empower citizens to tackle their housing crisis.